In Spain, elderly UK expats struggle for care post-Brexit

TURRE, Spain, June 19 - Daniel Northover left his home in Liverpool this month, which marks the 10th anniversary of Britain's Brexit referendum, to move in with his 80-year-old mother in Turre, a town of 4,500 people in Andalusia in southern Spain.

After his stepfather died last summer, Northover, 53, has taken turns with his sister to travel back and forth to Spain to care for his mother Carole, who cannot cook, clean or dress by herself after suffering several strokes.

But with non-EU residents only allowed to remain in the bloc for 90 days in every 180 without a visa, he said it had become unsustainable. A project manager for local councils and charities, Northover did not meet the requirements for a working visa. Visas to care for a dependent family member are only available if it is the UK citizen needing the care.

A senior European Commission official said cases where the absence of a family member providing care would force the elderly beneficiary of the Withdrawal Agreement to leave the host state were evaluated on merit. Otherwise, general migration rules applied.

Northover's sister's application for a family reunification visa was rejected.

That left Northover and his partner with no choice but to sell their house to raise the funds for a so-called "non-lucrative" visa — which bars them from working — and become full-time carers.

"The way the (Brexit) withdrawal agreement was written means we've had to give up our lives and careers," Northover said.

"The agreement was terrible. They didn't think it through," said Carole, waving her fist in anger as she sat in her wheelchair in the Spanish sun next to her son.

"I'm so ashamed I’ve caused [my children] this stress."

'A RECURRING PROBLEM'

Northover's situation mirrors that of tens of thousands of families of British retirees in Spain scrambling to find ways to care for their infirm parents abroad.

Britain voted by 52% to 48% in a referendum on June 23, 2016, to exit the European Union after more than four decades of membership. The decision meant an end to Britons' automatic right to live and work without restrictions in EU member states.

Spain's resident British population, the largest in the EU at around 266,000 according to official statistics, is ageing fast. The number of over-75s has grown from 36,000 in July 2016 to over 51,000 at the start of last year, Spanish data shows.

"This is a recurring problem that isn't going to go away," said Sally Myburgh, a British resident of Malaga who runs a Facebook group offering advice for navigating Spain post-Brexit.

Myburgh said she regularly encounters families in Northover’s situation.

"The attitude is they should just go back to England... but these people are at the end of their lives," she said of the retirees. "This is their home."

'EVERYONE KNOWS ME HERE'

The number of Britons living in Spain has remained largely stable since the Brexit vote, official data shows. About a third of them are pensioners, and many live in villages and towns dotted along Spain's Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol coastlines.

The Spanish social care system provides home care to infirm citizens and residents, but this is capped at 94 hours a month for those classified as suffering from a "total loss of autonomy" - around 3 hours a day.

Returning to the UK is a daunting and unrealistic prospect for those who have spent decades in Spain and have no community or property to return to, said Neal Anderson, a welfare officer at the 'Help at Home Costa Blanca' charity providing support to elderly Britons in the area.

"My mum is 80. A major upheaval is distressing. Uprooting her to a place she doesn't know with people she doesn't know... it could kill her," Northover said, adding he feared that even if she survived the move, registering her in Britain's overburdened social care system would take months.

"I can't imagine living [in the UK] now... I love Spain... This is home," said Carole, who voted to remain in the EU. "Everyone knows me here." REUTERS